


Trust Is A Two-Way Street

by FrostyFingers



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Connor Deserves Happiness, Gen, Hank Anderson & Connor Friendship, Loss of Trust, Poor Connor, Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Protective Hank Anderson, Reed is a bastard, Trust Issues, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-19 22:22:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17610134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrostyFingers/pseuds/FrostyFingers
Summary: So far three officers, four detectives and one lieutenant had been killed. It had seemed random at first. A shootout during a robbery, a gun drawn after being pulled over, a routine check after someone had called in a disturbance or being the first one at a crime scene. There had been no connection at first sight, but it had left Connor with a nagging feeling.





	Trust Is A Two-Way Street

**Author's Note:**

> I've finally decided to post this after writing it back when I first played DBH, which was in May. Since then I've played the game about 8 more times (somehow I'm finding it very hard to make different choices, which doesn't help with the flowchart) and I still think it's the best game I've ever played. Also this fic is unfinished, but I'll try to get things done if you like it. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

He knew that he couldn’t stay. Couldn’t wait for what was to come. He had to interfere, somehow try to protect what was dear to him. Time was of the essence and he told himself that it was the logical thing to do. So, Connor, RK800, deviant and official partner of Lieutenant Hank Anderson, made up his mind. He grabbed his beanie to hide the LED on his temple, even though Hank had repeatedly told him to just take it out, he hadn’t managed to work up the courage to do so and pulled on a sweat jacket. As he walked towards the front door he could see his favorite dog looking at him with big, round eyes.

Connor felt a twinge in his chest, as if his thirium pump was malfunctioning, but after a quick self-diagnosis he found out that there was nothing wrong. He walked up to the ball of fur and kneeled down to pat the fluffy beast.

“Hey Sumo, I have to take care of something. Promise that you will be on your best behavior. And take good care of Hank, alright?” He hugged the dog tightly and pressed a kiss into his fur. “I’ll see you soon.”

The door opened without a noise and soon Connor found himself on his way. There was something he had to check out, it was keeping him from sitting still while Hank was asleep and until he knew what was going on, his brain wouldn’t shut up. His LED would continue flicking from yellow to red and Hank would worry, because he didn’t know what was going on.

His processors told him it was a fairly cold night, not that it mattered much, Androids couldn’t feel pain. At some point though; and he had found that out the hard way when Hank and he had worked a crime scene in a snowstorm and he had refused to wear a jacket, claiming that he couldn’t get cold and ending up half frozen and unable to move for nearly twenty minutes with his partner hovering over him like a mother hen; the cold would be uncomfortable, irritating and unpleasant as his joints would work more slowly and his wiring would itch. So now he would always wear a jacket when going outside. When it was over 46.4°F he would wear a light jacket or sweat jacket, but if the temperature dropped below that, Connor would wear a thick winter jacket with a hood that had faux fur on it. A gift from Hank after the nearly frozen incident.

The streets were empty, it was 3:20 am after all, and snow was softly falling. Connor thinks that taking a cab would’ve maybe been the better choice, but he had been walking for twenty minutes already and it wasn’t that much further anyway. So, Connor kept walking, he knew the best route, had checked it before leaving the house that night, he wasn’t sure what he would find, but if he was right then this would be treated as a crime scene and with any luck he would find their cop killer.

That was why Connor was so riled up. So far three officers, four detectives and one lieutenant had been killed. It had seemed random at first. A shootout during a robbery, a gun drawn after being pulled over, a routine check after someone had called in a disturbance or being the first one at a crime scene. There had been no connection at first sight, but it had left Connor with a nagging feeling. No one else had been harmed which had made him curious. He had wandered the premises of one of the crime scenes and ran into a homeless person curled up in a corner. After handing him some cash the man had confessed that someone had given him money, so he would make a call to the police.

Fowler had been more than happy with Connor’s discovery and Hank had stood proudly next to his partner while somewhere in the background Detective Reed was quietly fuming. The man just didn’t like him.

Flashback

“Hey, Barbie, where’s Ken?” Gavin Reed asked as he strolled up to Connor’s desk. The Android stayed quiet and continued working on his terminal. “Hey! Plastic prick! I’m talking to you.”

Ever so slowly Connor raised his head. “Oh, good morning, Detective Reed. How can I help you today?”

“You should write it down on your plastic chip not to get mouthy with me. Especially when your keeper isn’t around to watch your pathetic ass. So, where’s daddy?”

Stress levels 60% ^ 

“Are you referring to Lieutenant Anderson?”

“Am I refer – listen, fuckface! When I ask you a question, I demand an answer!” Reed hissed, hitting the desk with his fist as he leaned in close.

Connor kept his face emotionless. To anyone he would seem as cool as a cucumber, apart from the red LED on his temple, but ever since he had fully realized that he was a deviant with a free will, things were looking different on the inside. It was fine that Reed hated him, because Connor hated him back. He was done pretending to get along with the man. Of course he wouldn’t just attack the other man, for the sake of keeping his job, but it wasn’t as if he cared whether Reed was alive or not. 

Connor had been afraid when he had come to that conclusion. He had freaked out and it had taken Hank over an hour to get him calm enough not to blow up. Sumo had helped immensely, laying over the Android’s legs. After a while Connor had opened up, confused and appalled by his own thoughts, but Hank had just laid an arm around him, relieved that there wasn’t anything wrong with his partner, and told him that it was okay to dislike someone. ‘Especially that stupid fucker’ he had said.

“Lieutenant Anderson has an appointment today. He will be in later.”

Reed laughed. “An appointment with the bottom of a bottle of whiskey, huh?”

“No,” Connor argued vehemently. “He has an appointment with –” he stopped himself there. “Actually, it’s none of your business.”

The detective grabbed a handful of the Android’s color and pulled him out of his chair. “You want to try that again, you fuck?!”

“If Lieutenant Anderson would like to share that information with you, he will. I won’t do that though. Anything else I can assist you with, Detective?”

He could see how Reed was fuming and a quick scan told Connor that there was a high chance the other man would hit him any second.

“Hey, Gavin! Come take a look at the girl I met this weekend.” Another Detective called out.

“Be right there,” he called back. “This isn’t over, plastic prick.”

“Have a good day, Detective,” Connor couldn’t suppress the reply. The sarcasm came with living with Hank, so there was really nothing he could do.

DBHDBHDBH

It was an hour later that Connor found himself in the break room. Hank would be in any minute and so the Android was brewing some coffee for his partner.

“Finally you’re being useful.”

Connor briefly closed his eyes. Just one day without Reed, that would be heaven.

“Milk and sugar.”

“We don’t have hot chocolate,” Connor replied, remembering when Hank had told him that anything but black coffee was a kiddie drink.

“Fuck you. You’re a machine, I’m ordering you to bring me a coffee.”

They’d had this conversation before. Connor remembered how the man had punched him in his artificial gut for disobeying.

“I’m sure you remember: I don’t work for you. I don’t even want to work with you. Yet, for some reason, you’re here every day. Come to think of it, do you do any work or are you just here to harass people.”

“You’re not people!” They were nose to nose now and Connor was rather sure he didn’t like him in his personal space. “You’re a piece of plastic, a slave built to obey. You think you’re so smart, some kind of Robocop, but you’re shit!”

“I have an almost perfect success rate on my cases, how about you, Detective Reed?” Connor taunted.

Reed pushed him against the wall, but was in his face again immediately. “Solving cases while putting things in your mouth. Disgusting fuck. But I hear you’re good at putting things down your throat. Is that why Anderson keeps you around? You’re good at sucking cock, little slave boy? Or is it that you got shit on him? Are you blackmailing him? He’s a dirty cop and you found out?”

Connor gave him a hard shove, getting him out of his personal space. “Hank is not a dirty cop!”

Reed laughed. “You don’t even know him! He’s fucking wasted 90% of the time. He doesn’t even know how to be sober anymore. Probably shot someone while drunk on the job, huh?”

“Speaking from personal experience, Detective?”

In a flash Reed was in front of him and Connor didn’t have time to react, before the man’s fist connected with his right cheek and knocking his head back. It was a blur, but somehow the two had landed on the ground, either trying to come out on top while throwing punches.

There was a lot of shouting, while they were brawling and then there was a pair of hands pulling him away from the other man and he struggled against the hold.

“Stop. Stop, Connor. Calm down, kid.”

He was barely hearing the words, his eyes fixed on his enemy, but Reed was just the same, while another officer tried to pull him away.

He was roughly turned away, his feet momentarily lifting in the air as he was manhandled out of the break room and towards the men’s room.

“For fuck’s sake, calm down, Connor.” The door was thrown open and he was pushed inside. The Android still continued forward. “Connor. CONNOR, STOP!” Hank’s voice boomed through the tiled room and he stopped struggling immediately. The pair of hands gripped his arms tightly and Connor flinched heavily. “You okay, son?”

The Android was panting even though it wasn’t necessary for his artificial lungs to do so, but apparently deviancy made his body behave the way it wanted to.

“Kid, you okay?” Connor nodded. “Are you sure?”

“I… I’m fine,” he replied with a shaky voice.

Hank snorted. “You don’t look it. Hell, you’re actually pale, kid.”

“I’m alright, Lieutenant. Thanks for asking. I’ll get back to work right away.”

The older cop knew then that he wasn’t fine. Connor hadn’t called him by his work title in weeks. “Yeah,” he drawled. “Hold that thought. I’m going to clean you up a bit.”

Connor looked into the mirror and saw that there was thirium running down his nose and mouth. It was all over his shirt, mixed with what seemed to be Reed’s blood as well. At least there didn’t seem to be any permanent damage to his head and even his artificial skin remained unharmed.

“Care to tell me what that was all about?” Hank asked, gripping Connor’s chin gently to turn his head to the side as he started wiping the wet paper towel over his face.

Connor considered remaining silent, but he knew that the lieutenant wouldn’t drop it if he didn’t get some kind of answer, so he thought about his options for a moment, while Hank wiped the towel over his ‘bloody’ mouth.

“Just another day with Detective Reed.”

Hank nodded, still working on getting the Android cleaned up. It did something funny to Connor’s insides when the man took care of him.

“Still, it looked rather painful from where I was standing.”

“I’m fine, Lieutenant,” Connor replied.

“You didn’t hold back either.”

Something flashed in front of his eyes and he could feel his stress level rising again. He harshly pulled his head back and stepped away from his partner, frowning at the man. “So, you are saying I should have let him punch me. I should have to stand down and just take it, because he is human and I am not?” Connor was barely aware that his voice had been close to shouting and he was panting again. What was it with his body reacting like it was alive?

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” the lieutenant tried to soothe. “That’s not what I meant, kid. Look, I’m just worried about you, okay? I’ve never seen you like that.” He closed the distance between them and Connor couldn’t suppress a flinch, when the man reached out for his face again. Hank stopped himself at the sight. “It’s alright, kid. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Flashes of Hank pushing him into a wall, drawing a gun on him in the park or almost shooting him at the CyberLife warehouse flashed through his mind, but logically Connor knew that that all was before they had become close. Their relationship wasn’t like that, they were friends. The man had seen the difference between fake Connor and himself, had waited anxiously at the Chicken Feed for him to return. He had hugged him tight and long enough so that Connor realized that he was important to him.

He let his head hang. “I’m sorry, Lieutenant.”

“Hank,” the man corrected softly.

“Hank,” Connor echoed.

He nodded and gently continued his cleaning. “Got nothing to apologize for, kid. You’ve had a rough day.” The Android nodded. “Wanna talk about it?”

Connor huffed a laugh and Hank gave him a smile in return. Of course the subject wouldn’t be dropped. “Detective Reed was being his usual self. There was some back and forth and… he said some things that I didn’t like. Also I don’t think he is very fond of sarcasm, because next thing I know he hits me in the face.”

He could see the different kind of emotions crossing the grey-haired man’s face, from amusement at the mention of sarcasm, something Connor had recently picked up from Hank, to anger at Reed hitting him back to concentration on cleaning up his partner.

“Sarcasm now, huh?”

“One might say I am spending too much time with you, Hank.”

“Fuck them,” he grumbled. “What things?”

“Excuse me?”

Hank rolled his eyes. “What kind of things did that asshole say to you?”

“It’s not important. Can we get back to work now? There is something I would like to check out. At the second crime scene, there was that woman –“

“Connor,” Hank interrupted. “What did Reed say to you?”

He sighed, something that he had picked up a while ago as well. It was somewhat scary how he became more human every day and yet he still had an LED blinking on his temple.

“Don’t even think about lying to me.”

“I’m not!” He argued.

“Your LED is going crazy again,” Hank said, gesturing to his own temple.

A quick look in the mirror confirmed what the man had said. The small circle was quickly changing between yellow and red.

“I…”

“I’ve noticed, you know?” Hank continued. “Sometimes it would be yellow and it’d look as if you were lost in thought or processing information, but then it would switch to red. Mostly when it was something I asked you. It’s gotten better though. It’s blue most of the time and only turns red when there’s shit going down. I thought we’d gotten past the lies.”

“Hank…” Connor dropped his head again, hating how his chest suddenly felt tight. “I don’t… I didn’t…”

“Hey, hey! Don’t get your panties in a bunch.” He put a hand on the Android’s shoulder and squeezed gently and Connor could feel his stress level drop again. “I’m just saying… you don’t have to pretend, you know. Not with me. You can tell me anything, alright? Shit… kid, you know I care about you, right?”

His thirium pump skipped a beat then. “I know, Hank. I care about you, too.” Hank smiled and then proceeded wiping at his face, the paper towel was almost blue now, coating the lieutenant’s hands as well. “He started his argument about me sticking certain things into my mouth, but then changed the approach and said that you are a dirty cop and that… that I am blackmailing you.”

“That fucking cocksucker!” Hank exclaimed. “I’m going to kill him!”

Connor quickly reached out and held onto Hank’s forearm. “Hank, please. It’s done. He’s not worth it.”

“That why you hit him?”

“I was angry. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but it triggered something and I reacted. Badly. I shouldn’t have hit him.”

“Ah!” Hank waved at him as if to dismiss the thought. “That fucker deserved it. Did you hurt yourself doing so?”

Connor shook his head. “Hank, you know that I would never do that. That I would never betray you, right?” He asked and was promptly pulled into a quick hug of reassurance. “You have thirium all over you now.”

“Well, shit. And that fucker’s blood as well. Got a change of clothes?”

“No.”

“Me neither. Well, fuck it. Partner look then.” He checked Connor’s face for any remaining blood and then patted his cheek gently. “Come on, kid, you can tell me all about that lead now.”


End file.
